Childhood friend

Audelia slowly peeked inside the window of the rundown house only to find the silhouette of a child illuminated by a single lit candle, sitting by the door. The girl looked sleepy, and her tiny hands reached up to rub her eyes. The house was old and the thin walls could barely hold their ground against the harsh winds of the north. Inside the building, mattresses were placed out on the dirty floor where sleeping children could be seen curled up against one another to keep themselves warm.

Audelia slowly opened the door to the building to not surprised the child sitting by the door. The moment the door creaked open the little girl who had been guarding flew up from her post excitedly.

"Sister!"

The little girl looked at Audelia with twinkling eyes before reaching out her short arms, Audelia picked the girl up in her arms.

"Oh my, why are you not sleeping yet?" Audelia smiled affectionately at the girl.

"Felix said I could stay up and wait for you today! The others said they would wait too but they all fell asleep. But you know what? I was the only one who didn't fall asleep sister!" The little girl made a triumphant expression while excitedly telling Audelia about her little accomplishment.

"I see, so that's how it is." Audelia said while making a mental note to scold Felix about it later.

The mattress shifted slightly as Audelia saw another child poking his head out from the covers, looking at her with sleepy eyes. It took a moment before he could process the situation with his groggy mind.

The moment he realized who was standing at the door, the boy quickly tapped on his friend's shoulder who was sleeping beside him, waking him up.

"Max! Wake up! The pretty sister is here!"

Audelia put a finger to her mouth hushing the child in order not to wake up all the children, after all it was very late into the night now. Suddenly a man appeared from the adjacent room,

"Now now children, go back to sleep, adults have things to talk about."

Audelia turned towards the voice, the man smiled sweetly at the children who whined about not getting to play with Audelia.

"But Felix we want to play with sister too! You can't take her all to yourself!" A child with puffed out cheeks said accusingly.

After a few minutes of bikering back and forth with the children, they somehow managed to convince them to go back to sleep.Felix led Audelia into the run-down kitchen. "Greetings your royal highness." His curly hair fell over his eyes as he bowed down in greetings with a grin plastered over his face.

"What's with the formalities? There's no one else here but the two of us."

"Well your highness hasn't been visiting in such a long time that I thought you must have forgotten about this commoner and immersed yourself in royal duties." Felix had said it as a joke but Audelia frowned after hearing what he said.

"You know that is not true Felix, you are my dearest friend. I'm sorry I couldn't come check on the situation here earlier, I've been occupied with the preparations for the banquet for Qasha that's coming up."

His tall frame that was previously leisurely leaned against the door frame tensed up. "Ah…you know I was just joking, I know you are busy." A bit guilty that he made her feel bad despite knowing how busy she is he quickly tried to change the subject.

"Did you lose weight again? Alas…what do they do to you in that place Lia?…" He scowled thinking about how ridiculous it was that the imperial princess herself was starved and probably consumed less food in a day than most commoners in this village did.

Felix hated the empress just as much as Audelia if not more. His resentment towards Catherine stemmed from her treatment of Lia, his precious friend, but most of all from the empress's past actions. She had taken away all that was precious to him, he detested the way people like Catherine who had all the power in the world without having earned any of it used it to trample over other people in order to bring themselves to a higher position.

Felix was from an esteemed family, he was the son of duke and duchess Arteza. Duke Arteza was a respected man who had earned the love of the people of Lucrezia with his blood sweat and tears. He led the Lucrezia army through war after war and protected the empire from the frontlines. As a result, Audelia's paternal uncle, the late emperor had given him the dukedom of Arteza and named him as the advisor of the king. After the throne was passed down to Audelia's father, the current king, the duke had pledged his alliance towards the new king and publicly supported the imperial faction out of respect for the former king. As time went by the duke slowly realized that the power was not held by the king himself but rather the corrupted queen. After failing to persuade the king and wake him up from the spell of seduction caused by the queen, the duke decided to back away from the imperial faction which caused other nobles to change side to the aristocratic faction as well. He was that powerful of a man.

He was too powerful. Too much of a threat to Catherine.

"What are you talking about Felix, I'm fit as a fiddle I even think I've gained weight!" Audelia's cheerful tone wasn't well received by Felix who knew she was just putting up a blatant lie right now.

Felix opened his mouth to say something but was abruptly cut off by Audelia,

"Anyways, that's not what I'm here to talk about now, is it? How has the situation with the plague been, any news on the import of medicine?"

Felix sighed before saying, "It's getting worse, the import of medicine is still blocked. I did some digging, and it looks like it does reach the border of Lucrezia by the seaport at Hestia but barely any of it makes its way to the actual market" he said.

Audelia's face contorted in frustration upon realizing, "…someone's buying all of it before it reaches the market."

Felix nodded. He knew he should be worrying about the empire especially since Audelia worked so hard to protect it but his mind was elsewhere. He reached out his calloused hands to touch a strand of silver hair that was peeking out from under Audelia's wig. "Oh thank you Felix I didn't even notice I-"

He gently put his palm over her cheek feeling the warmth of her skin warming up his cold hand.

"Felix?" she asked.

"Don't scrunch your face like that, it's ugly." He told her. Audelia scowled at him, "I've been called many things but ugly is new" She playfully pinched his hand making him retract it.

"I'm serious Lia, take care of yourself. I know it's your duty to worry about your people, but I'm worried about you" he looked so lonely in that moment that she was slightly taken aback. Though, in a blink of an eye his usual cocky smile was back on his lips. He pinched her cheek before letting go.

***

The streets of the town were dimly lit by the full moon that shone from the cloudless sky. Audelia quietly made her way down the streets while trying to keep a low profile as she did not want to draw attention to herself. Here she was, the princess of the empire all alone at night with no guards or security, lurking around suspiciously like some criminal. After talking to Felix she had realized that the situation with the medicine was due to the involvement of a third party, at first the reports had stated that the lack of medicine was due to the recent climate change that made the herbs hard to grow. The fact that they even had to import it from another kingdom outside of Lucrezia in the first place is because the environment in the empire wasn't optimal for the herb to grow in.

The western dukedom, Hestia, is humid and the soil is affected by the salty sea water which makes it hard for crops to grow, their economy is after all, based on the trading of merchandise by the seaport and not on agriculture. The dukedom of Qasha isn't a good place for this herb to be grown either as there had been an ongoing drought there for the past years. Lastly, the northern territory which is under the direct rule of the imperial family is a cold place, the crops that are grown here are all adapted for the cold climate and would survive the snow during winter, the medicinal herb that Audelia was out after required delicate care and optimal climate to grow in. Thus Audelia had no choice but to find the medicinal herb from outside of the kingdom.

Audelia continued to walk down the dark streets deep in thought. "Meow '' two big eyes the color of the sun was staring at her from the corner of an alley she was passing. Audelia hesitated before walking up to the black cat that had hidden in the darkness of the night. To her surprise, she found something else other than the cat, curled up behind it was a little boy. He was lying down on the cold ground curled up into a ball not making a sound. He wasn't moving.

The cat who had been standing in front of the boy as if to guard the little creature left its post and walked up to Audelia before it started to tug on her skirt with its mouth, directing her to the body. She did not hesitate this time and quickly picked the boy up in her arms. His body was freezing to the touch which made the blood drain from Audelia's face. She dreaded the thought that the poor boy had died out here in the freezing night all alone. But just as her heart was about to break at the thought, she felt the body in her arms move. His curly black hair was wet and sticking to his forehead. Swiftly she took her cloak off before wrapping it around the boy securely. " You will be alright so don't be scared...you'll be alright" She whispered to the boy hoping he would hear her. From the looks of it, the boy couldn't be more than 5 years old. His tiny little body shook in her arms as she walked out of the alley with hasty steps while the cat trailed behind her. Audelia was running at this point before stopping at the sight of people standing in front of her a bit further away from where she stood. Without her cloak, she would surely stick out even with her disguise. She contemplated what to do before she decided to give it a shot. She calmly started walking again towards the two men who hadn't noticed her presence yet as they were fully occupied with drinking and speaking to each other loudly. Just as she thought she would pass by unnoticed one of them turned quiet and started to follow her with his eyes. After all, why would a woman dare to walk alone in these quarters at this time of the night, it was like asking for trouble.

Please don't bother me please… She thought to herself while her heart was beating loudly in her chest. She needed to get the boy into safety as soon as possible and she did not have time to deal with the men. "Lady, what are you doing all alone so deep into the alley, did you get lost? " One of the men walked up to her while keeping his drunk gaze on her eyes before they started to trail down to her neck and bosom, lingering there for a bit too long before returning to look at Audelia's face. Audelia backed away slowly as the two men approached her. She was scared, her heart was thumping so loudly she was afraid they could hear it too. Despite this, she kept her calm demeanor and answered the man.

"...I am not lost, thank you for the concern. Well then if you would excuse me." She turned her back on the men in an attempt to escape the situation but was instead pushed to the side making her hit her shoulder into the wall. The cat that had been trailing closely behind her ran away from the scene.

"Aye not so hard man she might break" one of the men mockingly told his friend. "What do you think you are doing? What do you want?" She gritted her teeth at them trying to sound as intimidating as she could without letting her fear show. Another man was now towering over her close enough for her to be able to smell the alcohol oozing from him. Without saying anything he just grinned at her while letting his gaze roam around her body. She pulled the boy closer to her protectively before confidently craning her head up to look the two men in the face. "I asked you what you want, is it money? You can take all of it, here." She pulled out a pouch with gold coins in it throwing it on the ground before the men.

The men looked surprised, "where the fuck did you get all this money from lady? You must be one hell of a whore to have gained this much" His sleazy mouth tugged into a grin before he bent down to pick up the pouch

"But, if you insist, how could we reject the gift from a beautiful lady like yourself." The man spoke to her after picking up the pouch from the ground. "To thank you for your gift we'd like to give you something in return as well, isn't that right?" The man holding the money turned to his friend and asked. The friend held a smirk on his face and eagerly agreed. "why don't you come home with us today?". As the man reached out and grabbed Audelia's arm she froze. her heart thumped loudly in her ears as fear struck her. She held herself together and attempted to loose free from the man's grip. Her thin arms tried their best to fight off the men.

All sorts of thoughts passed through her head at that moment. Was this how her life would end? With no loved ones by her side and in the hands of filth like these men, her honor in shatters? She felt anger flare up inside her heart and her sight was dimmed with contempt and hatred. How could God be so cruel, how could he make someone live the life Audelia had to live and then just take it away before she could experience any joy in life, it was too cruel. Tears started to flow from her eyes as she was trying to fight off the men.

A tear could be heard as the man's dirty hands ripped open her blouse.

Anger and contempt spilled out of her in form of tears over her life, who was she supposed to blame? Audelia cursed them all, the god who had abandoned her and her mother years ago, the greedy councilmen, and the sly vixen of a queen. And her father, she blamed him for her pathetic life and she blamed him for taking her mother away. Why make her suffer through all these years just to end up like this?

Everything was hazy and her mind couldn't process what was happening.

Her body started to go limp and her head was spinning. She gave up on trying to resist but did not once let go of the boy in her arms. She let her body slide down the wall behind her as her legs gave out. A snarl could be heard from behind the men and she looked up to see the same cat from before. It had come back for her. Somehow that comforted her a bit, at least the cat had cared enough about her to come back. Or maybe it was worried about the boy?

Its glowing golden eyes turned into slits while glaring at the men. She focused her eyes on the cat, not daring to look at the dirty hands that were tearing away at her dress. Audelia's consciousness slowly slipped away into the darkness, was she starting to see double? Other than the cat's eyes, she could now see another pair of golden eyes illuminated by the moon, glaring at the men with so much coldness that it made her shiver. The view before her soon faded away as her eyes closed, and she was surrounded by darkness.